About Northwest Laborers Employers Training

OUR HISTORY

1968 – Eastern Washington Laborers-AGC Training Fund is established in Spokane, WA.
1968 – Western Washington Laborers-AGC Training Fund is established in Duvall, WA.
1970 – Western Washington L-AGC hires its first training director.
1971 – Eastern Washington L-AGC hires its first training director, Harold Avery.
Mid-’70s – Western Washington L-AGC moves to White Swan, WA.
1977 – The Pasco training site is established.
1979 – Seattle SuperSonics win the NBA championship. We didn’t have anything to do with it. We just enjoy pointing it out.
1981 – Western Washington L-AGC moves to the current training site (a former Nike missile base) in Kingston.
1983 – On July 23, the very first apprenticeship program in the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) is established in the Pacific Northwest.
1984 – Eastern WA L-AGC and Western WA L-AGC merge to become the Northwest Laborers-Employers Training Trust (NWLETT).
1994 – The Department of Labor recognizes “Construction Craft Laborer” as an apprenticeable craft.
1994-1995 – Classroom and dormitory buildings are erected at the Kingston site.
1995 – Utah becomes part of NWLETT.
1999 – Everybody parties like it’s 1999. Because it is.
2007 – The Satsop training site is established in Elma, WA, at the site of the unfinished nuclear power plant.
2011 – NWLETT celebrates 30 years and receives the deed for the Kingston training site.
2011 – The Harold Avery Apprenticeship Training Building at the Kingston site is dedicated in recognition of his status as the “Grandfather of the Apprenticeship Program.”
2012 – Apprenticeship program length in Washington state increases from 4,000 to 6,000 hours.
2013 – NWLETT celebrates 30 years of apprenticeship; Seattle Seahawks win the NFL championship (see 1979).
2021 – NWLETT becomes accredited by the Council on Occupational Education (COE) and becomes an .edu.